Scott Shane and Colin Moynihan: “For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans’ phone calls — parallel to but covering a far longer time than the National Security Agency’s hotly disputed collection of phone… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Free Speech
UK Guardian to share Snowden NSA documents with New York Times
Via the Guardian’s Lisa O’Carroll: “The Guardian has struck a partnership with the New York Times which will give the US paper access to some of the sensitive cache of documents leaked by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The arrangement was made when the Guardian was faced with demands from the UK government… Continue Reading
International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance
Final version 10 July 2013 –International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance: “As technologies that facilitate State surveillance of communications advance, States are failing to ensure that laws and regulations related to communications surveillance adhere to international human rights and adequately protect the rights to privacy and freedom of expression. This… Continue Reading
FISA court ruling on illegal NSA e-mail collection program
Washington Post – Ellen Nakashima, “The National Security Agency unlawfully gathered as many as tens of thousands of e-mails and other electronic communications between Americans as part of a now-discontinued collection program, according to a 2011 secret court opinion [redacted]. The 86-page opinion, which was declassified by U.S. intelligence officials Wednesday, explains why the chief… Continue Reading
TIME – Martin Luther King Jr: Architect of the 21st Century
Jon Meacham: “With a single phrase, Martin Luther King Jr. joined Jefferson and Lincoln in the ranks of men who’ve shaped modern America.” See also this free TIME multimedia site “Fifty years ago, tens of thousands of buses, cars, trains and chartered planes converged on Washington for the biggest civil rights rally in U.S. history.… Continue Reading
DOJ/Obama Administration White Paper on Bulk Collection of Metadata Telephony
WSJ – Obama Proposes Surveillance-Policy Overhaul – President Plans Changes to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Transcript of President Obama’s press conference on surveillance, August 9, 2013 Background on the President’s Statement on Reforms to NSA Programs, August 9 2013 Huffington Post – Obama Proposes FISA Reforms Amid Growing Concerns Over NSA Surveillance DOJ/Obama Administration White Paper on… Continue Reading
EC – consequences of living in an age of total information
Statement by EC Vice President Neelie Kroes “on the consequences of living in an age of total information”: “If businesses or governments think they might be spied on, they will have less reason to trust the cloud, and it will be cloud providers who ultimately miss out. Why would you pay someone else to hold… Continue Reading
EPIC – Government Releases Secret Court Order Authorizing NSA Telephone Surveillance
“The Director of National Intelligence has published the “Primary Order” from the FISA Court which describes the scope of the NSA’s data analysis activities for telephone call records. The order details the procedures the NSA is expected to follow when reviewing data, but is heavily redacted. The order does not include a legal analysis of… Continue Reading
Principles on Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance
International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance – Final version 10 July 2013 “As technologies that facilitate State surveillance of communications advance, States are failing to ensure that laws and regulations related to communications surveillance adhere to international human rights and adequately protect the rights to privacy and freedom of expression.… Continue Reading
Big Data, Little Privacy: Tracking the Usual Suspects
Via LLRX.com – Big Data, Little Privacy: Tracking the Usual Suspects In his article, Ken Strutin examines how the 21st century use of watch lists might or might not resemble the labeling of the McCarthy period, and how the experience of that era might inform an evaluation of present-day designation of the dangerous. After first describing… Continue Reading
UK Guardian – Secret court lets NSA extend its trawl of Verizon customers’ phone records
“The National Security Agency has been allowed to extend its dragnet of the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon through a court order issued by the secret court that oversees surveillance. In an unprecedented move prompted by the Guardian’s disclosure in June of the NSA‘s indiscriminate collection of Verizon metadata, the Office… Continue Reading
Coaltion of Good Government Groups Urge US Attorney General to Release Reports on Telephone Surveillance
“[On July 8, 2013] the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), along with 22 other good-government groups, sent a letter to the US Department of Justice urging Attorney General Eric Holder to make public any reports by Inspector General Michael Horowitz regarding the collection of Americans’ telephone records under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.… Continue Reading
